It made me realize that it's been a long time since I painted a "straight" portrait (i.e., no exaggerated features, no weird colors in the background, no extra textures), and it's also been a while since I did a contour portrait straight to ink. Ironically, while Deb Weiers's thing is blind contour, when I do her style of portrait I like to plan it first with pencil and then go back over it with pen after I apply colors and shading. So I decided I would do a continuous-line contour (not blind), and paint a portrait in watercolor on white paper. It seemed kind of foreign after almost six months of doing everything differently!
This portrait of a little older and softer Joyce Carol Oates is done with a continuous line, but I didn't want too much distortion, so I did pick up my pen in about four places to move it to a new starting place. So it has more of a straightforward portrait feel to it, and I painted it with only watercolors. After I finished, though, it felt like it was a disembodied head floating on an excessively bare ground of white, so I added a quote, and also a background in turquoise ink. The background is a bit splodgier than I would have liked, but still probably better than if I'd tried to do a smooth wash in watercolor, being way out of practice for that.
Her face came out a little larger/longer than it is in life, but I think it's pretty accurate as a likeness. Not as much fun as wonky stuff, but it's good to keep your eye and hand accustomed to looking for the real colors and proportions.
Uniball pen and watercolor (and yes, some white gel pen for her gray hair and the lights in her eyes—I have gotten used to this "cheat") on 140-lb. coldpress Fluid watercolor paper, 9x12 inches, with a Daler Rowney ink wash in the background.
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